Toronto Mayor under withering criticism after announcing he'll skip million-person gay day parade

Toronto Gay Pride 2010. Photo: Nouspique, Flickr

The Huffington Post reports that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, already seen as condescending to his city's gay inhabitants, is being sharply criticized by two newspapers after announcing that he would skip Toronto’s Pride parade in favor of a weekend at the cottage.

Marcus Gee, of The Globe, called the decision "petty, stubborn and mean."

Royson James of the Toronto Star wrote the following:

“We thought someone would have reminded Mayor Ford that despite his own personal or religious views, despite his unease around gay people, despite his natural or cultivated antipathy towards such Torontonians, he had to do the mayor thing — the grip and grin, the bringing of greetings on behalf of the people of Toronto We thought wrong.”